MY NET UTILITY OF THE MONTH
                 A concise(ish) guide to ICQ

                    Andrew Wielochowski

I Seek You or more commonly called ICQ is in my opinion one of the
most essential pieces of software to have on the net. What it does
is very simple.

When you install ICQ you enter all your details. They include
your name, age, nickname and optionals like your telephone number
(as if), what you like, what your hobbies are etc... and then it
makes you a little folder somewhere on the ICQ network and gives
you an ICQ number.  Now if your friends have ICQ then they too
will have an ICQ number. You get their ICQ number and tap it into
your ICQ terminal while on the net and once they have authorized
you. (Authorize is optional meaning you don't have to let just
anybody add you... read on). When you enter this number then you
have added your friend to the ICQ database. Next time you go
online ICQ activates and it quickly logs onto the ICQ network and
if your friend is online or anybody in your add list is online
then it tells you. Then once they are online you can use ICQ to
send messages to them, files and other options as well as chat.

MESSAGES
This is like a miniature e-mail that you quickly write to a
person. Like HELLO when they get on line or send me that Half-life
patch etc...

FILES
You can send them text files and binaries by selecting the file
you can and clicking send. The other person then has a message
saying: ACCEPT FILE. And they choose whether to accept it or not.

CHAT
Heard of mIRC OR CHAT on the Internet. Well this is the same with
the exception that the person you are chatting to does not have to
wait for you to press enter every time you write something.
Because as you write it they see it as it forms letter by
letter.

Of course when you are online you may not always want a little
voice say "EOH! EOH!" as a message comes in and you may not be
wanting any messages because you are too busying downloading a
patch, playing games or reading web pages to read their messages
so you can also set your online status. This means that you could
be occupied and so nobody can send you messages until you are
unoccupied.

Or you could be open to random chat, which means that someone
you've never heard of will suddenly appear and ask you to chat
with them. Generally safe ... but I got one guy who wanted to know
what food I brought and if I shopped at Sainsburys ... I just quit
the chat room.

ICQ is essential because it livens up the Internet when you have
nothing to do. You can chat to friends from all over the world who
have ICQ. You can use it to find out which server a person is
playing games in and then go and join the game. You can search for
web pages.

OBTAINING ICQ
ICQ is presently abut 3Mb big and is available from the ICQ
website at: www.icq.com

SECURITY
ICQ is as secure as having e-mail. You can set ICQ to ignore
certain users so you don't get messages from them and you can use
the authorization option to ensure you know who is adding you.

People can still find out your IP address and e-mail but as long
as you don't make enemies then you won't get Nuked! or Mail
Bombed.

You can find extra utilities that detect whether you are being
Nuked or not and some will delete all messages in your ICQ
incoming and others can delete all e-mails waiting to come. By the
way I'm just warning you of the dangers - people are very unlikely
to do this.

I think ICQ is a fabulous piece of software and is definitely one
of the Net's most essential utilities.

If you are interested in ICQ and want to see how it works if you
get it then my ICQ number is: 31545378.  I'm not on too often, but
I am normally on during the weekend.

NEXT TIME - - Quakeworld











                              - o -